You may notice that the preference noun (أفْعَل) in the structure mentioned above is always in the singular masculine form, whatever the preferred gender or number is. E.g. in example no.2 the preferred is feminine, and in example no.3 it is plural, while the preference noun is still singular masculine.

You may also notice that the preposition (مِن) is used to link the preference sentence (i.e. it means “than”).

2-The preference noun when connected with the definition article (al):

In this case the pattern (أفْعَل) begins with the definition article being (الأفْعَل) as in the following examples:

The preference noun can be an annexing noun, i.e. followed by an annexed noun (مُضاف إليه).

The annexed noun can be either definite or indefinite noun. In this point no.3 we study the case when the annexed noun is an indefinite noun, while in the point no.4 we will learn the case when the annexed noun is a definite noun.

From the above mentioned table you may notice that the preference noun is followed by an indefinite annexed noun (صديق – زَوْجَة - صَدِيقَيْن – أُخْتين – سكان - طالبات). These nouns are all considered (muđâf ilaihi), so that they are in the genitive case (i.e. signed originally with kasrah on their last letters). The preference noun on the pattern of (أفْعَل) in the above mentioned structures is always an annexing noun (muđâf).

In this case (the iđâfah to an indefinite noun) the preference noun is always in the singular masculine form, whatever the gender and number of the preferred noun is, as in the above mentioned examples (أَخْلَص – أَوْفَى – أَكْثَر – أَطْوَل – أَفْضَل - أَحْسَن).

While the preference noun is always in the singular masculine form, you may notice that the annexed noun in the above mentioned structures matches always the preferred noun in gender and number.

4-The preference noun when annexing to a definite noun:

In this case the preference noun is followed by a definite (muđâf ilaihi).

Before studying the examples let’s compare between this case (no.4) and the previous case (no.3) in the following table:

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